BBC: Is Running the BBC Now Impossible?
- John Reith, the first director-general of the BBC, was not satisfied with his record: "What I was capable of compared with what I've achieved is pitiable," he once...
- Tim Davie is the latest, resigning on Sunday amid accusations of left-wing and liberal bias in its news coverage, including the misleading editing of a documentary about...
- Running the BBC has never been easy, and its tussles with governments and other critics reach back at least three decades.
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Tim Davie’s Resignation and the BBC’s Perilous Position
John Reith, the first director-general of the BBC, was not satisfied with his record: “What I was capable of compared with what I’ve achieved is pitiable,” he once complained. Other BBC leaders who came after Reith may have felt the same, given the corporation’s tendency to lose them abruptly.
Tim Davie is the latest, resigning on Sunday amid accusations of left-wing and liberal bias in its news coverage, including the misleading editing of a documentary about Donald Trump. His statement said that he hoped to clear the way for a “sensible, calm and rational public conversation” about the BBC’s future.That is vanishingly unlikely.
Running the BBC has never been easy, and its tussles with governments and other critics reach back at least three decades. But the departure of this director-general, along with head of news Deborah Turness, is deeply damaging. It has occurred just before a crucial government review of the corporation’s funding.
Davie did not have to resign.BBC journalists messed up the programme about President Trump and ther were other flaws in its output, but this did not justify such a leadership sacrifice. the editors involved should have corrected errors promptly and faced action if they refused, in line with the broadcaster’s motto “pursue truth with no agenda”.
The fact that he felt the need to leave reveals deep-seated problems with the BBC’s management and the way it has been treated by governments, including this one. These have existed for a long time but the situation is more perilous as the broadcasting industry gets squeezed, both in the UK and globally. Both need to be addressed.